Home › Research › Brain scans and imaging
Blood-brain barrier opening in Alzheimer's disease using MR-guided focused ultrasound
Lipsman N, Meng Y, Bethune AJ, Huang Y, Lam B, Masellis M, Herrmann N, Heyn C et al.. Nature communications, 2018-07-25
Topic: Plasma and spinal-fluid biomarkers
Magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound in combination with intravenously injected microbubbles has been shown to transiently open the blood-brain barrier, and reduce beta-amyloid and tau pathology in animal models of Alzheimer's disease. Here, we used focused ultrasound to open the blood-brain barrier in five patients with early to moderate Alzheimer's disease in a phase I safety trial. In all patients, the blood-brain barrier within the target volume was safely, reversibly, and repeatedly opened. Opening the blood-brain barrier did not result in serious clinical or radiographic adverse events, as well as no clinically significant worsening on cognitive scores at three months compared to baseline. Beta-amyloid levels were measured before treatment using [ 18 F]-florbetaben PET to confirm amyloid deposition at the target site. Exploratory analysis suggested no group-wise changes in amyloid post-sonication. The results of this safety and feasibility study support the continued investigation of focused ultrasound as a potential novel treatment and delivery strategy for patients with Alzheimer's disease.
Key findings
- Opening the blood-brain barrier did not result in serious clinical or radiographic adverse events, as well as no clinically significant worsening on cognitive scores at three months compared to baseline.
- The results of this safety and feasibility study support the continued investigation of focused ultrasound as a potential novel treatment and delivery strategy for patients with Alzheimer's disease.
New to this subject? Start with our plain-English guide: Brain scans & tests →
Study details
- Evidence strengthLow
How this study scored 50/100
Published in a leading specialty journal. Scored zero for study design, sample size, effect reported and randomised / blinded because the record does not state it. We have no data on journal's citation record, times cited, citations per year, impact for its field and year, cited by studies here, still being cited, senior author's track record, institution's track record and multi-centre collaboration, so those were left out: it earned 29 of the 58 points we could judge it on, which is 50 out of 100.
| Component | Points | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Journal tier | 9 / 10 | Tier 2 — leading specialty journal (Nature communications) |
| Journal's citation record | — / 4 | No journal record from OpenAlex — left out of this score |
| Study design | 0 / 12 | No study design recorded — scores zero, not guessed (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Strength of evidence | 1 / 5 | Rated “low” in our summary |
| Peer-review validation | 10 / 10 | Peer-reviewed. Published as an article in a named peer-reviewed journal. |
| How recent | 2 / 5 | 2018 — within 10 year(s) of the newest study here |
| Sample size | 0 / 4 | Participant count not stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Effect reported | 0 / 3 | No effect size reported — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Studied in people | 3 / 3 | Studied in people (pubmed indexes it as a clinical or observational study) |
| Randomised / blinded | 0 / 2 | No randomisation or blinding stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Times cited | — / 7 | No citation count (not found in OpenAlex) — left out of this score |
| Citations per year | — / 5 | No citation count or no year — left out of this score |
| Impact for its field and year | — / 6 | No field-weighted citation impact (OpenAlex has none yet) — left out of this score |
| Cited by studies here | — / 6 | Not yet checked against this library's citation graph — left out of this score |
| Still being cited | — / 4 | No yearly citation counts — left out of this score |
| Senior author's track record | — / 4 | Senior author's record not available — left out of this score |
| Institution's track record | — / 3 | No institution listed in OpenAlex — left out of this score |
| Multi-centre collaboration | — / 3 | Institutions not listed — left out of this score |
| Indexed in PubMed | 2 / 2 | Indexed in PubMed (PMID 30046032) |
| Free to read | 2 / 2 | Free to read |
| Points | 29 / 58 | Scored on 11 of 20 parts. We have no data for the rest, so they are left out: 29 of the 58 points we could judge it on is 50 out of 100. |
| Total | 50 / 100 | — |
What each of these 20 components measures, and what this score is not →
Read the original
Free copy unknown: no free-copy check has an answer for this record yet. That does not mean it is paywalled.
Cite this study APA, Vancouver, BibTeX · download .bib or .ris
Built from the record alzhub holds for this paper, not looked up. Volume, issue and page numbers are not held in the record. The record's author list ends in “et al.”, so not every author is named. Check the citation against the original before you use it.
APA 7th
Lipsman, N., Meng, Y., Bethune, A. J., Huang, Y., Lam, B., Masellis, M., et al. (2018). Blood-brain barrier opening in Alzheimer's disease using MR-guided focused ultrasound. Nature communications. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04529-6
Vancouver
Lipsman N, Meng Y, Bethune AJ, Huang Y, Lam B, Masellis M, et al. Blood-brain barrier opening in Alzheimer's disease using MR-guided focused ultrasound. Nature communications. 2018. doi:10.1038/s41467-018-04529-6. PMID: 30046032.
BibTeX
@article{lipsman2018-30046032,
author = {Lipsman, N. and Meng, Y. and Bethune, A. J. and Huang, Y. and Lam, B. and Masellis, M. and Herrmann, N. and Heyn, C. and others},
title = {{Blood-brain barrier opening in Alzheimer's disease using MR-guided focused ultrasound}},
journal = {Nature communications},
year = {2018},
doi = {10.1038/s41467-018-04529-6},
pmid = {30046032},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04529-6}
}
Related studies in Brain scans and imaging
Also tagged “amyloid-angiopathy”
229 studies in the library carry the topic tag “amyloid-angiopathy”; these are this study's neighbours in a fixed, alphabetical-by-hash tour of them, not the closest in content. All 229 tagged studies.